Dance of Shadows

Buy/Listen:

A new release by the multi-award winning Russian violinist Roman Mints. Each piece on this recording has been chosen by the artist for very personal reasons. It includes the notable premiere of Dobrinka Tabakova’s Spinning a Yarn, for violin and Russian Hurdy-Gurdy (kolesnaya lira) written especially by the composer for Roman Mints.

The recording premieres the use of Spatial Orchestration, a concept created by Mints to give the listener a unique understanding of each track. To find the right sound for each piece of music, Roman has used different place settings for the microphone, as well as moving his instrument around the studio, allowing his personal interpretation to enhance the final experience.

Reviews:

“The Moscow-born violinist Roman Mints, who deserves to be better known in the UK, introduces new or unfamiliar solo works in this fascinating recital disc. First off is the earliest of the works, which has obsessed Mints since college days: Ysaye’s Sonata in A minor(1923), a fiercely virtuosic work inspired by Bach’s G minor sonata. However much the work may once have eluded him, Mints plays it with conviction and insight here. A melancholy work by Dobrinka Tabakova (b.1980), Spinning a Yarn, uses a hurdy gurdy too, and draws on the notion of storytelling. Schnittke’s idiosyncratic tribute to Paganini, a Piazzolla tango – Etude No. 2, Anxieux e rubato – and Postlude by Valentin Silvestrov make up this varied and often haunting disc.” —Fiona Maddocks, The Observer

Tracks:

Eugene Ysaye: Sonata Op. 27, No. 2

I. Obsession | Prelude

II. Malinconia

III. Danse des Ombres | Sarabande

IV. Les Furies

Astor Piazzolla:

Tango — Etude No. 2: Anxieux e rubato

Dobrinka Tabakova:

Spinning a Yarn

Alfred Schnittke:

A Paganini

Valentin Silvestrov:

Postlude

Roman Mints Recordings:

“…what really matters is his ability to work with each of the selections on the composer’s own terms. There is no questioning the technical skill he brings to each of the pieces he performs. More important, however, is his acute awareness of where the music actually resides beneath the surface level of all the marks on the score pages.”—Examiner.com